self-portrait wednesday on thursday again

Nuestra Dama del Ventilador

(Our lady of the Fan)

Did I mention we've been going through a heat wave? And that we don't have air conditioning? (And that I've been sleeping on the floor downstairs all week with two fans blasting on me?)

hot hot hot!

104 degrees

I am working on my quilt block for the pink artists block party (see link on sidebar), but slowly, slooooowly, because I am melting in this heat. But I cannot wait for the heat wave to pass over, because it's due in two days!

Meanwhile, I've been seeking cooler refuge through hijinks and waterfalls.

We found a new home for this little pixie at the public library. If you're a big pixie fan, it might still be there, free to a good home!

On Monday we went to the waterfalls to get away from the heat. Ahhhhhh! Wish I could go back today, but Willow has two dance classes to attend.

Emily and Willow hamming it up. Emily climbs out of her cave. Willow. Tree.

Ciao for now - it's back to the fans!

f-f-f-faces

I am finally breaking in my new journal, and having fun with faces again. This young lady appeared on one of the pages. I was surprised by her likeness to my niece Summer.

As I often do, I took work-in-progress snaps of her, and found this stage quite amusing. I thought, Why don't I make another face with this expression? So I did, but I have to warn you - this next child is a bit disturbing!

I can see Clothilde becoming a lovely dollie... heh heh heh...

Speaking of dolls, here's a little SeaSide Sally girl in the works.

And that first polymer clay doll I showed before when she was a faceless mannequin (next to the bottle doll) now has a face (in the style of Du Buh Du Designs - She is the master and I'm just a lowly student attempting to learn).

I've also been devouring Quilting Arts Magazine and ArtQuiltingStudio lately and have been itching to get stitching again. I am back to work on the Oaxaca quilt - slowly... slowly...

The weather has been perfectly perfect for the last two days, sunny in the upper 70s with the loveliest of breezes - I'm in heaven! I hope you're happy wherever you may be, as well!

always chasing rainbows

I just met a new friend priti.lisa at PritiStudio - looks like we have quite a lot in common! She had this rainbow link on her blog, so I had to find out what my rainbow would look like. (I sort of cheated and did it twice. I guess it's not really cheating - it's curiosity!)

This first one included the tie-breaker question (choose 3 colors you like). I think it's an extremely ugly rainbow, but I like what it says about me! (Oh, vanity!)

Your rainbow is intensely shaded green, orange, and red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are an intelligent person. You appreciate a challenge. Others are amazed at how you don't give up. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Here is my second rainbow - I unclicked my answers to the tie-breaker question. MUCH prettier! (And I like what this says about me, too!)

Your rainbow is shaded red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate energetic people. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

the many faces of...

As artists do we not put a little of ourselves into everything we do? Is this, then, a self-portrait?

(This is the beginning of this year's name tag - I do a new one each year for the summer program I teach in. My group decided to name itself the Ninja Turtles, so this is, in fact, a self-portrait of Ninja Turtle Twilight. Note the bangs and the pigtails, and the fierce showing of teeth.)

Or is this a self-portrait of sorts? My inner goth-vagabond, a bottle doll I'm working on.

(The clothing is not actually hers - she invaded Deirdra's stash of doll clothes and fabrics, and even swiped the miniature harp guitar for this photo shoot. I had to take it away from her. In the photo below, you can see that she was none too pleased with me - she wouldn't even look me in the eye after that!)

This is NOT a self-portrait, even though it looks more like me than the photos above. It is only me modeling the lovely poetry dress that Deirdra made in Ruth Rae's class at Artfiberfest.

It was big time fun hanging out in D's studio over the 4th of July weekend - I got a LOT of artwork done! I worked on 2 parts of my Oaxaca art quilt, a journal page, 2 cloth and clay dolls, one polymer clay doll, and my bottle doll. I wish I could always feel that energetic and productive!

On Monday it was back to school, and guess what I found in the classroom!? Poor little birdie may have come in through a hole in the ceiling tile, and could have been trapped in the classroom since last Thursday. I found its lifeless sibling first, and then this little one hiding under a projector cart. Not sure what to do, I took it home in a tissue box and called the Audubon Society. They said I should release it near where I found it, so I would have to wait 'til the next day. I tried to feed the baby, and it eagerly jumped into my hand - so endearing! Sadly, sweet baby did not make it through the night, and she took a little piece of my heart with her.

The next day I found the mama bird in the classroom - she had also passed on. I am not sure what to think of this. The theme of our program this year is "Taking Flight," so I'm feeling very troubled that all these flying creatures are showing up dead around me, as if it were something symbolic. I don't want to believe it is - I want to think it's just a sad coincidence that this bird family got stuck in the classroom, but I don't know. Everything else about the summer program has been so inspiring so far - we're working with the kids on defining their dreams for their lives, and reading biographies of people who had all kinds of obstacles to their dreams but figured out ways to overcome them. It all resonates so much with me and my own transformations at this time in my life. I have never been happier as a teacher. So what does it mean that the little bird died? I want my dreams to fly.